We help academic institutions finance, launch & operate successful online programs.

Embanet™

Learning Transformed. Minds Engaged.We are innovators in the field of online education, proudly offering nearly

two decades of experience partnering with top-tier, not-for-profit academic

institutions to deliver fully realized online learning solutions, student acquisition

and support services. Together with our Academic Partners we are transforming

the way students seek and acquire knowledge, engaging a new audience of

learners through industry-defining online education.

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ew technologies, unique

delivery methods and creative

teaching techniques have

pioneered tremendous innovation in the

ways people seek and acquire knowledge. As

a result of the growing demand for learning

opportunities that blend the quality,

prestige and reliability of traditional higher

education with the conveniences provided

by modern technology, Embanet has become

the premier provider of online learning

services and technological solutions for

higher education.

We are acutely aware of the dynamics that

drive academia and utilize our experience

and expertise to assess, finance, recruit,

develop and support online learning

solutions for our Academic Partners.

Embanet works with top-tier colleges and

universities seeking to launch new degree

programs online or extend the reach of

existing online programs. We provide a

comprehensive set of enabling services and

best practices to ensure our partners are

successful in meeting their online goals.

Our Services+ Market Research and Program/Institution

Readiness Assessment

+ Program Funding

+ Marketing to Prospective Students

+ Student Recruitment

+ Curriculum Model Design

+ Course Design and Development

+ Faculty Support and Training

+ Management of the Online Learning Environment

+ Student Retention

+ Plan for Increasing Competitiveness

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What we do.To build sustainable, lasting partnerships

with our nation’s top educational institutions

we’ve made the needs of our Academic

Partners, and their students and faculty, a

priority in all facets of our business. We

are engaged, and actively safeguard the

reputation of our partners while ensuring

that all academic, support and business

processes blend together seamlessly.

Embanet acts as a true partner by sharing

the risk and reward with our Academic

Partners. We have a vested interest in the

success of your programs, as we provide

the upfront funding associated with our

services. When appropriate, we are willing

to make additional capital investment to

support your school in areas such as faculty

expansion or administrative support. We

earn our investment back over time through

a revenue sharing arrangement. Embanet’s

Academic Partners can create new revenue

streams and serve more students with

minimal financial risk. We understand

that we won’t be successful until you are

successful.

Our goal is to become a transparent

extension of our Academic Partners. To

achieve this synergy, a cross-functional

team is headed by a dedicated Managing

Director who supervises the relationship,

works directly with your faculty and staff to

manage marketing, recruit qualified students,

collaborate with faculty on instructional

design, and ensure high retention rates. It’s a

relationship designed to build strong, lasting

partnerships that enable you, our Academic

Partner, to expand your educational reach

through effective, profitable, and fully

realized online learning solutions.

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Our Partnership

“Our partnership with Embanet allows us to work together to address the challenges facing an academic institution while providing the resources and expertise needed to ensure the success of our online program.”Murat TarimcilarVice DeanProfessor of Decision SciencesThe George Washington University

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“The cross functional team at Embanet gives us the expertise we need in marketing, recruitment, retention and course development, allowing us to focus our time on ensuring the courses and content are of the highest quality.”Nancy E. Moss CNM, FNP, PhDInterim Associate Dean - Graduate ProgramsProfessor/Director, Nurse-Midwifery & Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner ProgramsUniversity of Cincinnati

Support for our Academic Partners comes in two tiers – a direct and an indirect tier. The individuals filling the five roles in the inner circle work directly with your institution, supported by the Embanet employees in the six functional areas that

are represented in the outer ring.

The dedicated cross-functional team is accountable to your program’s interests exclusively. They operate on our extensive infrastructure of tools, systems,

processes and best practices, supported by functional experts and shared services teams that would take many years and millions of dollars to replicate.

The Embanet Circle of Support

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Faculty & Students

Managing Director

Marketing Manager

Instructional Designer

Enrollment Advisors

Student Advisors

Finance

Technology Marketing Services

Instructional Services

Recruitment Services

Student Support Services

Success #1 Exemplary academic outcomes in the online environment

Exemplary academic performance is, rightfully, an academic institution’s

top priority. Our proven program development process accurately

transforms academic programs into a dynamic online format while

enhancing the quality of the education. You should expect your distance

program to be just as rigorous and even more engaging than it is on

campus.

Success #2 Strong enrollment of quality students

We recruit responsibly. Our goal is not to attract more students,

but to attract more of the right students, in order to meet mutually-

agreed-upon enrollment goals. We achieve these goals as quickly as you

desire, helping your institution get the maximum return on its financial

investment. In nearly all cases, we have generated dramatic increases

in the percentage of qualified students who apply, far surpassing the

expectations many partners have had for online learning. And with

Embanet, recruitment is never high pressure. It is advisory, professional,

and mindful of your institution’s reputation.

Success #3 Extraordinary retention and graduation rates

In addition to recruiting more capable students, we provide direct

student support, helping students resolve issues that often interfere

with their success. After enlisting our services, our Academic Partners

experience retention rates that often exceed 90%, invariably surpassing

their on-campus counterparts.

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The 6 Definitions of Success

Based on our many years of predictable and repeated performance, our Academic

Partners have come to expect success in six critical areas.

“It’s great to work with a group of people that have a lot of experience and insight in the online industry. At every step we

have an expert from Embanet that can help and work with us in making sure that our online program meets the standards and

level of excellence that we expect at Howard University.”

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Success #4 Productive and rewarding student and faculty experiences

Creating an effective online program requires far more than posting a syllabus and

recorded lectures on the web. The online learning environment must be dynamic,

vibrant, and interactive. Drawing on decades of experience in this arena, we help

faculty create learning activities that engage their students in whole new ways.

Success #5 Preserved or enhanced reputation in the market

Together with our Academic Partners, Embanet designs sophisticated marketing

plans and strategies that preserve the integrity of, and even enhance, our partners’

reputations in the marketplace. While actively marketing programs, Embanet remains

completely invisible to the marketplace and the students. Our seasoned team stays

abreast of ever-evolving marketing techniques to generate optimum exposure and

awareness for your institution and programs.

Success #6 Strong net financial performance with minimal financial risk

Embanet works closely with you to develop a strong financial model. We can

also shoulder most of the upfront costs of launching new programs, substantially

reducing your institution’s financial risk while enabling entrance into the marketplace

sooner and in a more complete fashion. Today’s online markets are competitive and

complex. Embanet understands how to be successful in this challenging environment.

Kim R. WellsDirector, Executive Education Programs

Howard University School of Business

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he online learning marketplace

has become increasingly

competitive. Forecasts

predict competition will

continue to grow as more

academic institutions enter the online

environment. To develop, sustain and

support a financially and pedagogically

successful online program you must

recruit qualified students, create

dynamic content, support students and

faculty and deliver an overall engaging

learning experience.

The Online Program DNASM illustrates the interconnected activities that academic institutions must conduct so they can achieve success. Just as the genes in a DNA chain occur in a certain order, the Online Program DNASM also follows a general, chronological sequence with

each segment representing the comprehensive services of Embanet.

Our Services

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Market Research and Program/Institution Readiness

Will the market sustain this program and is the institution prepared?

Program Funding

Do we have enough resources to launch—at least $500,000 - $2,000,000 per program?

Marketing

What makes this program unique and how do we promote those

differentiators in a way that attracts qualified inquires while

maintaining brand integrity?

Student Recruitment

Can we go from qualified inquires to acceptable applications and

how will we manage a significant increase in inquires?

Curriculum Model Design

Can we design an efficient online curriculum that best leverages faculty

resources, offers flexibility, meets all accreditation requirements, and

ensures an engaging educational experience for students?

Faculty Support and Training

Can we scale quickly and still maintain quality? Will we be effective?

Manage the Online Environment

Can we effectively manage all the details to make each learning experience effective?

Student Retention

How do we keep students engaged? How can we achieve 90%+

retention rates?

Plan for Increasing Competitiveness

Are we disciplined enough and prepared to compete long term?

The DNA of a

Successful Online Program

Course Design and Development

Can we create high quality custom and engaging coursework?

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These are the outcomes academic institutions should expect from their online programs:

+ Exemplary Academic Outcomes

+ Enrollment Quantity and Quality

+ Outstanding Retention

+ Rewarding Faculty and Student Experience

+ Preserved and Enhanced Brand Integrity

+ Strong Financial Performance

©2013 Embanet LLC

1 > Market Research and Program/Institution Readiness Assessment

You’re a respected top-tier university with

superior academic programs, but are they viable

in the highly competitive online environment?

Embanet has established a national reputation

for using high-level market research to

determine program viability, reduce risk and

deliver predictable results. We examine your

infrastructure to determine if your institution has

the resources and processes in place to serve

larger numbers of students at a distance.

2 > Program Funding

Launching an online program requires significant

resources in order to gain exposure, acquire

students, train faculty, and create and manage

the new online learning environment. Working-

capital investments often reach $500,000 to

$2,000,000 per program launch. Depending

on our level of involvement, Embanet assumes

the responsibility for most to nearly all of your

upfront costs. This allows you to harness our

experience and resources to develop a program

and enter the online marketplace much more

quickly, deeply and profitably than would

otherwise be possible.

3 > Marketing

Effective and engaging marketing stems from

our BrandDNASM process which preserves

your brand integrity while providing maximum

exposure and creating optimum lead flow. Our

Marketing Managers create targeted multimedia

campaigns. The right messaging generates inquires

from more qualified prospective students, leading

to more successful enrollments.

4 > Student Recruitment

The recruitment process involves many elements,

most of which are time and labor intensive.

A targeted and branded marketing campaign

must be created and implemented, professional

recruiters need to be hired and trained, and a

database must be constructed to keep track of

incoming lead information. The cost of all these

recruiting tasks can be prohibitive. Recruiting

qualified students is one of the core strengths

of Embanet. Over the last 15+ years we’ve

developed and refined our approach, establishing

a highly trained team who practice a low pressure

and personal approach to recruitment.

5 > Curriculum Model Design

A well-designed online learning environment

makes the syllabus come alive. It combines

technology and pedagogy to engage faculty and

students in an exciting exchange of ideas. Our

curriculum design experts can help your faculty

develop a program that stimulates, invigorates

and results in outstanding learning experience.

6 > Course Design And Development

Embanet provides custom course development

services to you. Our Instructional Designers work

in a one-to-one relationship with each of your

faculty members in a development cycle that

lasts 4-6 months immediately prior to the course

being offered for the first time. Our collaborative

approach involves three stages, Pre-design,

Design & Development and Course Evaluation,

to ensure the quality and outcomes demanded by

top-tier institutions.

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The Online Program DNASM- In Detail

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7 > Faculty Support and Training

Learning occurs differently online, and because the

pedagogical tools differ, the support and training of

faculty is an important part of launching an online

learning environment. That’s why Embanet spends

considerable time training your faculty throughout

their online experience. From the moment a course

begins development, we engage your faculty in

training sessions that assist them with everything

from curriculum development to the development

of media that supports learning, to the physical

administration of the online classroom and learning

system.

8 > Manage the Online Environment

Together we work hard to establish a highly

engaging and educationally superior online

classroom. Ineffective or non-existent student and

faculty support systems can quickly offset the hard

work everyone puts into building a dynamic learning

environment. The Embanet network of support can

provide for all your online technical needs, including

learning management systems, hosting services and

help desk support. Our partnership begins with the

establishment of comprehensive 24/7 help desk

services. If something goes wrong your students and

faculty have someone to call to get issues resolved.

9 > Student Retention

Student retention is one of the most important

metrics we have to judge our success. For Embanet,

student retention is a priority throughout all of our

services. Retention begins with targeted marketing

materials and recruiting efforts that represent your

program with depth and authenticity. All of your

students receive personalized attention from a

Student Advisor throughout the duration of their

degree program. This personalized attention helps

ensure that students don’t fall behind, that they find

help when they need it and that they re–enroll when

the time comes. Embanet Student Support Services

has proven to be a defining factor when it comes to

retaining at-risk learners.

10 > Plan for Increasing Competitiveness

Our services take considerable pressure off of you,

and as a result you’ll have more time to plan for the

future. In fact, we designate key times at the end

of specified academic cycles to discuss progress,

determine where improvement needs to be made

and define goals for upcoming sessions. Continuous

improvement in our system occurs in each of the

core services as well as in the curricular offerings

themselves. This culture of improvement has

helped our Academic Partners withstand significant

increases in competition, battle demographic trends,

counter economic crises and solve internal issues

as well.

“Our partnership with Embanet has allowed us to be visible in the marketplace and helped us both in

our marketing and recruiting goals in a way that we wouldn’t be able to do on our own.”

William Clements , PhDVice-President and Dean

Norwich University

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o further illustrate our Online

Program DNASM, we have

elaborated on the first of our ten

services, Market Research and

Program/Institution Readiness

Assessment. All of the services in our

Online Program DNASM are handled in

this same methodical, data-driven, and

performance-oriented manner.

Developing a successful partnership begins

with a mutually-sponsored assessment of

the marketplace, your institution’s readiness

to enter it and the financial protections that

will drive institutional budgets.

Predictable performance driven by experience and data.

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Marketplace Viability AssessmentMarketplace viability research provides

both your institution and Embanet with

an understanding of how much demand

exists for a program at a national level.

The assessment is built around four

primary success categories: Audience

Profile, Degree Demand, Competitive

Landscape and Search Volume Analysis,

as noted in the left column of the chart

on the next page. These categories

are further broken down into specific

research deliverables, and then results

are compared to benchmarks of

success to determine the viability of the

program. Overall, more than 35 specific

market drivers are analyzed either

through secondary research, primary

research or in actual live market tests.

Program and Institutional Readiness AssessmentProgram and Institutional Readiness

gauges your institution’s ability to deliver

a successful online learning experience

for students at a distance and to support

a significantly higher volume of students.

This assessment is broken down into

the four most critical readiness areas:

Program Scalability, Program Admissions,

Faculty and Staff Resources and Student

Services, as noted in the second column

of the table on the next page. When

the institutional readiness assessment is

complete, you’ll have at your fingertips

a blueprint of what it will take to

adequately prepare for success. Overall,

more than a dozen facets of your

institution are assessed.

Financial OutlookEmbanet provides a financial outlook for

every program. The outlook includes

Student Enrollments, Incremental

Program Expenses, Net Operating

Income and Revenue Projections. This

information aids decision makers in

budget allocations throughout the first

five years of the program’s existence.

Embanet has launched well over a

hundred online education programs.

Throughout this experience, we have

collected thousands of data points that

help us predict the financial success of

an academic program.

Our academic partners unanimously agree that our methodical, research-based approach at the beginning of the relationship was key to the long-term success of their programs.

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Assessing the market. Measuring readiness.

Program and Institutional

Readiness

Program Scalability

+ Curriculum

+ Prerequisites

+ Advising

+ Academic processes

+ Scalability analysis

Program Admissions

+ Processes

+ Requirements

+ Turnaround time

Faculty and Staff Resources

+ Faculty champions

+ Available faculty

+ Program staff

+ Course development support

+ Resource analysis

Student Services

+ Admissions

+ Registration

+ Financial Aid

+ Payment

+ Library

+ Bookstore

+ LMS/Helpdesk

+ Services analysis

Market Viability

Audience Profile

+ Target occupations

+ Eligible audience size

+ Occupational growth rates

Degree Demand

+ Annual degree production

+ Degree production – 5-year trends

+ Substitutable degrees

Competitive Landscape

+ Online competitors

+ Admissions requirements

+ Degree cost

+ Time to completion

+ Total credit hours

+ Accreditation

+ On-campus requirements

+ Institution and program rankings

Search Volume Analysis

+ Market interest in keywords

related to program/degree derived

from the total number of Google

searches performed over the period

of a month

Financial Outlook

Leads and Conversion Rates

+ Projections based on the market

research from the market

assessment

Student Enrollments

+ Five-year projection by term

+ New students

+ Retention assumptions

Program Expenses

+ Existing costs

+ Incremental costs

+ Timeframes for new resource needs

Net Operating Income

+ Five-year projection

+ Breakeven dates and benchmarks

+ Return on investment

+ Working capital requirements by

academic term

©2013 Embanet LLC

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the value of working with Embanet rather than doing this on our own?

Embanet is the pioneer in the marketing, recruitment, course development

and retention categories of online learning. We’ve spent nearly two decades

building and perfecting these services and have an impressive infrastructure

and staff. Most institutions do not have the expertise or resources to replicate

the services Embanet provides while still minimizing market and execution risk.

As competition grows more intense, most institutions find that successfully

addressing all the processes in the Online Program DNASM is an overwhelming

task that distracts from the core mission to deliver a quality academic experience.

We know Embanet does not accept every institution and every program. What are Embanet criteria for an Academic Partner?We partner with institutions that sincerely want to be in online education

but feel as if they are missing some critical element or elements to make that

happen. Our ideal Academic Partners are committed to maintaining high

academic standards, yet are entrepreneurial in terms of educational delivery.

They recognize that success in the online learning arena means being flexible,

market-driven, and performance-based. Before we start, we give you our best

assessment of the market potential for online learning opportunities to better

ensure success for both parties.

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Will we retain academic control? Are we locked into some sort of new online system or programs that you already have? Who determines academic policies?Yes, you’ll retain full academic control in planning and administering the educational

experience. Generally, online and on-campus programs are governed by identical

academic policies and controls. Your institution determines tuition rates, admissions

criteria and student acceptance into the program; you will also approve all marketing

materials, remaining in full control of brand integrity.

Embanet personnel make every effort to become well acquainted with your institution’s

policies. We work closely with your student services department to ensure consistency

and accuracy while representing you to prospective and current students. The goal of

Embanet is to provide enabling services to help you achieve success.

Who builds and maintains the online courses?The decision is yours, as some of our partners choose to do this themselves. However,

Embanet has a dedicated team of instructional designers and technologists who are

well versed in online pedagogy and custom media development. They will work closely

with your faculty members to design, develop and deploy online courses. They can

provide on-demand design and technology consultation as well as personalized training

in managing the online classroom. The academic content remains with your faculty;

we simply provide the support to develop that content into something

that will provide a rich, engaging online educational experience. In all

cases, you retain ownership of the content, and faculty sign off on all courses developed.

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Embanet prides itself on being a patient, collaborative and yet performance-oriented organization. We

enjoy helping academic institutions frame and then address their online learning challenges. We would

be most happy to talk with you, whether you are contemplating some of the services described in this

brochure, or you would just like to get feedback on a specific challenge you have. Please give us a call.

Embanet™

877-303-2340

www.embanet.com

Chicago + Orlando + Toronto